Fierce as a Dragon in a Pinch
by myharlequinromance321
Summary: Rosemary O'Donnell is entering her seventh year at Hogwarts. Rose, the daughter of a school teacher and a veterinarian, grew up next door to her best friend Lily Evans, and close to her other best friend Severus Snape. In their fifth year, Severus said something terrible to both her and Lily, and the girls have not spoken to him since. The problem is, Rose is ready to forgive him.


"In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit. Not a nasty, dirty, wet hole, filled with the ends of worms and an oozy smell, nor yet a dry, bare, sandy hole with nothing in it to sit down on or to eat: it was a hobbit-hole, and that means comfort." Rose sighed contentedly as she sank into the comfortable couch. She always thought of the beginning of _The Hobbit_ when she entered the Hufflepuff common room. If you thought about it, the four main races in Middle Earth were based off of the four Hogwarts houses. Elves were Ravenclaws; intelligent, and calculating, but helpful all the same. Dwarves were Slytherins; ambitious, cunning, often mistrusting, and mostly misjudged as all bad, when, in reality, they were just like anyone—some good and some bad. The race of Men were Gryffindors; loyal, bold, and brash, often to a fault, running into wars and skirmishes headfirst. And lastly, Hobbits, or Hufflepuffs; warm, kind, and simple, but fierce as a dragon in a pinch. It wasn't by coincidence though, considering Tolkien was a Hufflepuff himself. Rose always felt that he had based Gandalf on Dumbledore, but her best friend, Lily, was always quick to point out that when Tolkien created Middle Earth, Dumbledore was a young man. "Pish posh," Rose always responded, "You're only out to ruin my fun Lily. Sometimes I regret the day my parents decided to buy the house right next to yours." And Lily would reply, as always, with, "Oh, come off it Rose, you know you'd have gone barmy without me." When Severus was still himself, and not the git he'd turned into at Hogwarts, he would always close the ritual by murmuring, not-so-quietly, "That would be hard, seeing as she's barmy as Barnabas." Then he and Lily would smirk at each other as Rose pouted for a few minutes before they would all burst out in laughter. Rose still missed him some days, and that proved to her how barmy she really was, missing him after what he'd called her and Lily that day in fifth year.

Even now, a year later, thinking about it got Rose's blood boiling, the git. But he really wasn't a git at the heart of it, and Rose knew that, that's what made it hurt all the more. She knew that he was in an extremely tough place, a half-blood in Slytherin, and he had to do what he could to survive. It still didn't excuse his rudeness, but sometimes Rose wished that they could all just go back to normal, and let Severus redeem himself. She missed his dry sense of humour and the way he could always make her and Lily smile. She even missed the way he looked at Lily, his eyes filled with adoration. It always made her a little jealous—they were all supposed to be best friends—but it was sweet and she had always hoped that they would get together and live happily ever after. That didn't seem very likely any more. Lily was finally warming up to James Potter after he spent the last six years attempting, and failing, to "woo" her. Rose didn't have anything against Potter, she thought he could be rather entertaining and charming on occasion, but he was also a big part of why Severus had done what he'd done. James and his friends, the Marauders as they liked to be called, were always pushing Sev, trying to get him to break. That day had been the day the he had broken, after being pushed from both the Slytherins and the Marauders, it had been too much.

Sitting there on the comfy couch in her hobbit hole of a common room, Rose made a vow to herself that this year, she would try her hardest to get Severus back as a friend. She was willing to forgive him, but she wasn't so sure that Lily would. Rose just hoped that she alone would be enough to help bring back the Severus that she grew up with and cared so deeply for. Severus Snape wouldn't know what hit him.

* * *

**A/N: So I know I'm supposed to be working on my Avengers fic, Jolene, but this hit me and I thought I'd put it up. I'm not making any promises that this story will ever get finished, considering my track record, but I really like the idea behind this one. Please let me know if you would like me to continue it, I might even if I don't get any feedback, but it'd still be nice to know if people like it. Thank you!**


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